VIRTUE AND V^CE 261 



mere anger. Some of the hawks which are the fiercest and 

 most furious when first taken out of the bow-net, prove the 

 easiest to reclaim, and the most obedient when trained. Sulki- 

 ness is the worst of the natural vices, and it is unfortunatel)- 

 common enough, not only in goshawks, which are notorious for 

 it, but in all kinds of hawks. Out of one nest I have had one 

 merlin which was almost the best-tempered and one which 

 was almost the worst-tempered that ever I saw. Eyesses are 

 more commonly sulky than passage hawks, and veiy often 

 display signs of this defect in the days of hack. Later on this 

 develops into some more specific vice, which will perhaps need 

 great care and patience to cure or modify. A short notice 

 of the vices most prevalent amongst hawks will not be out of 

 place, for the treatment of these disorders is almost as well worth 

 understanding as that of their bodily ailments. 



Carrying is a fault with which the falconer will generally 

 first become acquainted. The word is ill-chosen, or rather ill- 

 adapted from the Norman " charrier." It would have been better 

 if our ancestors had used such a term as "bolting" or "lifting," 

 so that no confusion need have arisen between the word carry- 

 ing, as applied to holding a hawk on the fist, and as applied to 

 the hawk's action in taking up and flying away with her food. 

 However, be the name what it may, the practice is one to which 

 all hawks are more or less naturally addicted, although some in 

 a very much greater degree than others. Merlins and hobbies are 

 the most notorious offenders, and wild-caught hawks of the long- 

 winged kinds, though not always troublesome in this way, must 

 be prevented for a long time from developing this habit, or they 

 will infallibly become spoilt and lost. In the chapter on Train- 

 ing, some directions are given for guarding against this predis- 

 position, and curing the mischief when it has already arisen. 

 But of all safeguards and remedies, by far the best is the habit 

 already referred to of constantly instilling into the hawk the 

 idea that your near presence is a thing to be desired, and not 

 disliked. If a merlin or any other hawk shows the least inclina- 

 tion to carry when flying to the lure, or when being taken up 

 from it, I would, for a time at least, never go near her on any 

 occasion without taking a piece of food in the hand and giving 

 it to her. By this means in a few days she will look cut for your 

 coming, and even listen for your step with all the pleasurable 

 expectation that other tame animals await the coming of their 

 feeder. And in taking her up have always on your hand a piece 

 of food which is either more tempting or at least more easily 



